When, for example, a 10 megahertz (MHz) long term evolution (LTE) cell is overlapping 5+5 MHz wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) cells, such as two single carrier WCDMA cells, and reference signal, received quality (RSRQ) measurement is carried out over the central seventy-two subcarriers corresponding to six resource blocks (RBs), this particular RSRQ measurement would be carried out in a guard band between, for example, the two WCDMA cells. Consequently, the RSRQ may be overestimated, and as the RSRQ could be used for handover decisions, the mobility functionality of the system may also be affected.
Various approaches may be provided for addressing this situation. For example, complex approaches including new signaling elements may be used to try to require the user equipment, under certain conditions, to perform RSRQ measurements over a wider bandwidth as compared to a minimum requirement of, for example, six physical resource blocks (6PRBs). Some specifications may only require a user equipment to perform measurements over the six center PRBs (which corresponds to seventy-two subcarriers), in Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) for both intra-frequency measurements and inter-frequency measurements.
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Technical Specification (TS) 36.331 includes an option for the network to indicate the bandwidth of configured carriers using the “allowedMeasBandwidth” parameter. This “allowedMeasBandwidth” option is used to be able to restrict the maximum measurement bandwidth that may be used by the user equipment, when the user equipment chooses to perform measurements on a wider bandwidth than required as minimum. The “allowedMeasBandwidth” parameter represents a maximum bandwidth that can be used when the user equipment performs a wider bandwidth measurements. For example, the user equipment may choose to perform mobility measurements of detected cells using a bandwidth wider than a minimum requirement, such as six PRBs, but the measurement bandwidth may not be allowed to exceed the indicated “allowedMeasBandwidth.”